Guglielmo Pepe

Guglielmo Pepe (13 February 1783-8 August 1855) was a Brigadier-General of the Two Sicilies during the Napoleonic Wars and the Spring of Nations.

Biography
Guglielmo Pepe was born in Squillace, Calabria, Italy on 13 February 1783, and he served in the army of the Parthenopaean Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars. Pepe was captured by the Sanfedismo forces of Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo during their insurgency in 1799 and exiled to France, and he served under Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat when the French conquered Naples. In 1814, he attempted to force Murat to draft a constitution in Naples to win the support of the people against the House of Bourbon and the Austrian Empire, but Murat did not heed his advice, leading to his overthrow a year later. While suppressing brigandage in the Neapolitan countryside, Pepe organized the Carbonari into a national militia for political purposes, and he was appointed Inspector-General of the Army after the April 1820 Neapolitan Revolution. However, the Austrians crushed the uprising, forcing Pepe into exile. In 1848, Pepe and 2,000 Neapolitan volunteers decided to join the Republic of San Marco in Venice during the republic's uprising against Austria, but this revolt was also crushed. Pepe died in exile in Turin in 1855.